THE FORMULAE OF ST. EUCHERIUS OF LYONS:

Letter to Veranus

Written in the early V Century
Translated by Karen Rae Keck, 1996

Formulas of Spiritual Intelligence
Preface

Eucherius to his son in Christ, Veranus, greetings.

I believe that you should study diligently these formulae of
spiritual knowledge,
which I have compiled and which I send you. The following knowledge is
meant to bring
the teaching of the divine scriptures easily to mind. Because the letter
kills and the spirit
gives life [II Cor. 3:6], it is indispensable that we enter the interior
of spiritual discourse
with a quickening spirit. We remind ourselves and others that, in the
future, the whole of
scripture will be our [mental] dress; the old, as well as the new, will
be the means to
allegorical understanding, because as we read in the Old Testament: I
will open my mouth
in parables; I will speak in old mysteries [Ps. 77(78):2], or again, as it
is written in the
New Testament, Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the crowds and
without
parables he would not speak to them [Matt. 13:34]. The heavenly talk of
the prophets and
the apostles is not to be wondered at; it is brought forth by prayer, not
by the usual way
that men write. Much will vanish easily if it is gotten readily; great
things, which are the
true thing, held in the interior, will be brought together, that the
blessed sayings of God
will be separated from other writings by their worth and type.

The entire worth of heavenly mysteries is not known indiscriminately and
randomly, nor is
the sacred set before dogs nor pearls before swine [Matt. 7:6], because,
in truth, like the
silver-plated dove whose posterior parts shine with the radiance of gold
[Ps.
67(68):14(13)], so the divine scriptures first shine like silver but glow
like gold in their
hidden parts. Rightly it is so managed, because the purity of eloquence
is hidden
altogether from the promiscuous eyes of the crowd, as if it were covered
by a garment of
modesty. And so, the divine is taken care of by the best stewardship;
the scriptures
themselves protect the heavenly mysteries by cloaking them, just as
divinity itself works in
its own mysterious way. Therefore, when in sacred books, one finds the
eyes of the Lord,
the neck of the Lord, the feet, and even the long-reaching arms of the
Lord, written
of---that God, God who is invisible, incomprehensible, eternally the same,
should be
limited in body is far from the universal faith of the church---is sought,
just as He is
disclosed, through the Holy Spirit, in the exposition of the image.

Here, we find the interior of the Lord's temple, here the holy of holies.
The body,
therefore, is the sacred scripture, as it has come down to us, as it is
in letters, with the
soul of moral sense, which is uttered in figures of speech, with the
spirit of superior
understanding, which names by analogy. How the pattern is found in the
three-fold nature
of the scriptures! The sanctifying confession of the Trinity preserves us
through all things
so that our spirit, our mind, and our body are irreproachably one, in the
coming and justice
of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, whom we serve [I Thes. 5:23].

The wisdom of the world divides its philosophy into three parts: physics,
ethics, and logic,
that is, natural, moral, and rational. Natural pertains to the
causes of nature, which
the universe holds; moral pertains to truth, which it sees as
custom; rational
pertains to the disputes about elevated things that God, who is the Father
of all, has
proven. Indeed, this differentiation is not dissimilar to our three-fold
method of teaching,
by which the heavenly scriptures are taught as philosophy, according to
history, according
to rhetoric, according to analogy, to whose who think otherwise.

History, for this reason, instills in us the truth of deeds or faith in
reporting. Rhetoric
takes the mind mysteriously back to the correction of life. Analogy leads
secretly to the
heavenly figures. There are those who think that allegory is thrown in
the fourth place in
the class of knowledge, and they would confirm this by foreshadowing of
future deeds in
stories. Here, in truth, are many similar examples made manifest: the
heaven which we
contemplate here is close to history; the life of the heavenly is close to
rhetoric; baptism of
water is close to allegory; the angels are close to analogy. It is
everywhere: and the
waters above the heavens praise the Lord [Ps. 148:4]. All the discipline
of our religion
emanated from that fountain of increased knowledge: they call the first
practice in
accordance with understanding, that is, reality and contemplation. One
fullfills his real life
in the correction of his habits; another steeps himself in contemplation
of the heavenly and
discussion of divine scripture. Real knowledge, therefore, is spread from
various sources.
Contemplation, moreover, is derived in two parts, that is, it consists in
historical discourse
and in understanding spiritual knowledge. But now, let us put forth the
clear formulas of
spiritual knowledge, which we have promised, putting the usually accepted
forms of each
name with the associated text of divine reading. Let us pray thus to the
Lord that He will
open the closed passages of scripture and that we may offer these, by
which the hidden
may be known to our mind:

And so, as he who will present a gift to the Lord, let us, therefore,
explicate now these
meanings of names and words, in accordance with those which are most
justly called
allegory.

Translator's note:

St. Eucherius relies, in the main, on the Vulgate for his
scriptural references.
Because it is based on the Septuagint rather than on the Hebrew
text, as the KJV
and RSV are, some of the passages read differently.

St. Eucherius frequently notes that some illustration is "in the bad part"
or "in a bad part,"
and he means by this that what is described in the passage is bad. For
example, he calls
references to the Babylonian captivity or the trials of Job "the bad
part."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The St. Pachomius Orthodox Library, St. Innocent of Alaska, 1999
Have mercy, O Lord, upon Thy servant, the translator Karen!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE END, AND TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
+